Case Number 13658

HAMBURGER HILL: 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

The Charge

War at Its Worst. Men at Their Best.

Opening Statement

Sadly, while Hamburger Hill has plenty of the former, it doesn't have
enough of the latter. This is a noble and ambitious film that's technically
superb but dramatically unsatisfying. Viewers' ability to truly get the most out
of it will depend on how much of the film's emotional context they share going
into it.

Facts of the Case

In May 1969, during the Vietnam War, the men of Bravo Company of the 101st
Airborne are ordered to take Hill 937 in the A Shau Valley from the North
Vietnamese Army. Bravo Company is made up of old-timers such as the literate
Motown (Michael Boatman, Spin City), the cocky Duffy (Harry O'Reilly,
The Black Donnellys), the gentle Gaigin (Daniel O'Shea, State of
Grace), and the company's bad-tempered medic Doc (Courtney B. Vance, Law
& Order: Criminal Intent), all led by the haunted Sgt. Frantz (Dylan
McDermott, Wonderland), and the hotheaded Worcester (Steven Weber,
Wings). Joined by a bunch of new recruits including Washburn (Don
Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda) and "Alphabet" Languilli (Anthony
Barrile, Kiss Me, Guido) the squad prepares for what should be a simple
attack. What follows instead is a brutal ten-day battle when the dug-in NVA
fights the men off with unrelenting savagery and Hill 937 earns its nickname of
"Hamburger Hill" as it grinds men of both sides down to flesh and
blood.

The Evidence

The 1980s saw an increase in the number of films about the Vietnam War.
Though there had been some in the late '70s, the '80s saw a veritable glut of
films of varying styles and genres, from brain-dead shoot-'em-ups like
Rambo and Missing in Action to more ambitious and intellectual
films like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. Hamburger Hill
tries to skirt a course somewhere between all of those. It's ambitious without
being pretentious, action-packed without lapsing into senselessness.
Unfortunately, in trying to define what it isn't, it never really hits on an
approach that works. It's a curiosity: a film that's graphic and realistic
without actually being emotionally involving. Despite some brutal battle scenes,
some realistic dialogue, and some impressive performances, it's hard to really
get caught up in it no matter how hard you try.

It's not that the film isn't careful to get the details just right.
Screenwriter/producer Jim Carabatsos (Heartbreak Ridge) is a Vietnam vet
himself, and he works hard to get the dialogue and minutiae exactly as he
remembers it. Soldiers fresh off the boat are referred to as FNGs, for
"Fuckin' New Guys." No one gives speeches about the meaning of life
and death-there isn't any time for such pontificating. Soldiers argue about
music, cars, and girls, in language that is deliberately prosaic, even
minimalist. Hamburger Hill also avoids the more sensationalistic aspects
of films like Platoon. There are no atrocities, no pot-smoking, no
murders of officers. The soldiers seen here are all just simple guys, struggling
to do their jobs and survive as best as they can. Director John Irvin (The
Dogs of War) shot footage of the actual war for the BBC, and his eye for
detail is clear, right down to the color of the buses. The performances are all
consistently strong. Though Vance and Weber stand out, as both are given crucial
scenes, no one drops the ball and each actor takes time to carefully craft his
character without adding unnecessary flourishes. The film even avoids
clichés in its score. Though Philip Glass is credited as composer, his
music only appears twice in the film, once at the beginning and once at the end.
The rest of the film is scoreless with only a few pop hits in a few scenes.

Such stubborn refusal to traffic in manipulation is welcome for a war film.
The problem is that in relying so firmly on accuracy, the filmmakers wind up
unintentionally affecting how the audience feels about the soldiers themselves.
It's not that the characters are thinly defined. Both the performances and
dialogue are too well-crafted for that. It's that they don't seem to have any
relation to one another. Their dialogue almost never reaches beyond the
superficial. On the commentary track, Carabatsos states that the lack of depth
in the soldiers' interaction was deliberate. Soldiers, as he recalled from his
days in country, never got too close to one another. They were friendly, even
buddies, but never friends. Friendship was too emotionally risky when the odds
were that the friend you made one day would, for reasons either good or bad, not
be around the next. That may have been the case, and it's another instance of
the film's sterling accuracy. Unfortunately, what works as realistic
authenticity makes for dramatic dryness. It's impossible for viewers to relate
to or empathize with these characters when they don't even seem to relate to or
empathize with one another. Characters need to have some degree of openness and
vulnerability in order for audiences to care about them, but the soldiers
depicted here are so emotionally distant that as the film progresses and some of
them are killed in combat, it's hard to feel much sentiment. We understand that
their deaths are tragedies, but we don't grieve.

The choice to make the soldiers so closed off winds up hurting the film. The
first 40 minutes or so are taken up with scenes showing the FNGs being taken
into the squad and bonding with the old-timers. Despite lots of chatter and
squabbling (and even a couple of scenes set in a whorehouse), these scenes come
off as flat and unconvincing. The soldiers aren't really connecting; they're
just going through the motions. Their dialogue sounds realistic, but having so
many scenes of characters who constantly keep their emotions in check doesn't
work dramatically, no matter how accurate they are. That emotional distance also
robs the film's battle scenes of their power. Those scenes are some of the best
parts of the film, full of action and energy but never confusing or farfetched.
The violence depicted here is graphic and brutal; this is definitely not
a film for the squeamish. Unfortunately, as exciting as they are, the battle
scenes simply never pack the punch they're clearly intended to, primarily
because the characters view their comrades' deaths so clinically and
impassively. If the soldiers are constantly staying detached from one another,
then how is the audience supposed to get caught up in their story?

Ultimately, Hamburger Hill isn't as successful as it wants to be in
trying to find a new take on Vietnam. There is a welcome middle ground between a
film as cynically manipulative as Rambo and one as bloodless and sterile
as Full Metal Jacket. Hamburger Hill's approach is to focus
obsessively on the details, and it definitely gets those right. Unfortunately,
it does so at the expense of making the characters emotionally accessible to the
audience. No one expects scenes of soldiers weeping copiously and making
long-winded speeches, but there should be some sense that what's happening
on-screen matters to the characters on more than a superficial level. Otherwise
the audience will find it hard to get invested in them. There's far too much
craft and care in Hamburger Hill to dismiss it outright, but it's also
hard to recommend enthusiastically. It works intellectually but not
viscerally.

For this new 20th Anniversary Edition, Hamburger Hill has been
newly remastered and remixed. The 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer is surprisingly
sharp for a twenty-year-old film. Irvin explains on the supplements that he
deliberately processed the film to make it look grainy and desaturated, so the
film is meant to look somewhat rough. It's still a good transfer, with no
scratches or dirt. The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround mix isn't as loud as one would
expect. Even during the combat scenes, most of the action is still at the front
speakers. It's perfectly audible, just not earsplitting.

For extras, Lionsgate has compiled a decent mix. First, there's an audio
commentary with Carabatsos, Barrile, O'Reilly, and O'Shea. Carabatsos discusses
the production and themes of the film while the actors reminisce about how
difficult the production was and how for many of them it was their first film.
It's a useful commentary in that it explains a lot of the choices made by the
filmmakers, and fans who love the film should definitely give it a listen. Also
included is "Hamburger Hill: The Appearance of Reality"
(16:50), a making-of featurette with interviews with Irvin and most of the cast
(except for Cheadle and Boatman). It's not very deep, given how short it is, but
there are some interesting stories about the difficulties in making the film
(which was shot in the Philippines during typhoon season and just after the
Aquino revolution). "Medics in Vietnam" (6:39) examines the roles of
combat medics during the war and has interviews with vets who served as medics
themselves. This is a fascinating aspect of the war that has often been
overlooked and this brief featurette here is just way too short to really
explore it. "Vietnam War Timeline" is an interactive timeline of the
history of Vietnam. When certain dates are clicked, facts about a notable event
in the country's history are explained in detailed paragraphs. It's useful for
viewers who may not know as much about the war and is a welcome addition.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

There's no question that Hamburger Hill works best in the details.
Early in the film, when two FNGs get into a pointless squabble, a third tries to
break them up by saying plaintively, "Hey guys, we're the Airborne. We
don't start fights, we end them!" In another context, that line might seem
corny, but here it's a subtle piece of characterization. Only a kid fresh off
the boat, who's never actually seen a day of combat in his life, would dare say
something so childishly naïve. The film is full of details like that, ones
that work precisely because Irvin chooses not to linger on them. One soldier
receives a message from his sweetheart back home telling him that he needs to
smile more in his pictures. As the camera tracks around the aftermath of a
battle scene, we briefly glimpse a little girl weeping over someone's body. One
soldier is so focused on doing his duty in the middle of combat that it takes
him a long while to notice that he has a massive critical injury.

The most resonant details appear early in the film, in scenes where the FNGs
are lectured on the proper procedures to write home and brush their teeth. At
first glance, these scenes are almost comical in their depictions of the Army's
fastidiousness and insistence on routine. By the end of the film, they carry a
much more darkly ironic meaning. It becomes obvious that the rigid insistence on
regulations isn't just necessary to ensure that orders will be followed. It's
also necessary for morale, for soldiers to find some form of order amidst the
chaos of battle. In moments like that, it's possible to see what Hamburger
Hill was trying for. It's unfortunate that the whole film isn't as
powerful.

Closing Statement

It's no accident that many Vietnam vets cite Hamburger Hill as one of
their favorite films about the war. Carabatsos and Irvin have taken great care
in reconstructing what the war was like down to the finest detail. But viewers
who weren't there will not get as much out of it. The film's appeal is too
insular, too narrowly constructed. The best war films take us inside the action,
and make us feel as if we're experiencing combat alongside the soldiers. This
film feels too distant for that. Hamburger Hill is an ambitious and
well-crafted movie, but in the end, it's nothing more than that.

The Verdict

Hamburger Hill: 20th Anniversary Edition is found guilty of
emphasizing technical accuracy at the expense of dramatic engagement. Lionsgate,
on the other hand, is acquitted for assembling a well-produced DVD that will
satisfy fans of the film.